This invention pertains to a method of cutting a multi-sided pile in a single pass therearound and to a pile-cutting machine which successively advances a power-driven cutter along straight sides of the pile at a cutting depth and which fully withdraws the cutter between cuts along sides of the pile.
After driving of a pile to a desired depth, it is frequently necessary to cut off an upper part of the pile to have the upper end of the pile at a desired level. Concrete piles are in use which are either cylindrical or multi-sided, as having a square cross section. Such piles have metal rods imbedded therein at a distance beneath the surface of the pile and have a central core area free of such rods. In cutting of a square pile, the best operation is to have a power-driven cutter cut through the reinforcing rods and to a desired depth within the pile along each side thereof in a single pass of the cutter. Thereafter, the mounting frame for the cutter can be lifted and, by being clamped to the part of the pile above the cut, the remaining core part of the pile is snapped off and the driven pile then has its upper end at the desired level.
The cutting of concrete piles containing reinforcing rods is known in the art. A machine for cutting cylindrical piles is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,867, owned by the assignee of this application. The machine has a frame which can be clamped to the pile and a carriage movable along guide means carrying a power-driven cutter which makes a uniform depth of cut in the pile in a traverse of the carriage around the pile.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,047 shows a complex machine for cutting a multi-sided pile wherein a series of cutters are repeatedly advanced along the sides of a pile at increasing depths to provide the desired depth of cut in the pile.
The machines of the aforesaid patents are not constructed to have a single cutter automatically cut a multi-sided pile to a uniform depth along all sides thereof in a single pass.